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Under Pressure From Lawmakers, State Cancer Agency CPRIT Agrees to Halt Grants

Posted byHoumanitarian
State Leaders Want a Halt on Grants by CPRIT (Texas Tribune)

Eric Berger, Todd Ackerman – Chron.com
Texas’ embattled cancer agency, complying with a request by the state’s top elected officials, said Wednesday it would stop awarding grants until it can assure the public it is conducting its business properly.

The chairman and vice chairman of the governing board of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas endorsed an appeal by Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus for a moratorium on grants until concerns about the agency are addressed. Collectively, the three officials appoint the majority of the agency’s board.

“These issues need to be resolved to restore public confidence in CPRIT,” Jimmy Mansour, chairman, and Dr. Joseph Bailes, vice chairman, said in a statement.

The controversy principally stems from two commercialization grants awarded by the agency, one to an “incubator” led by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the second to a Dallas-based company, Peloton Therapeutics. The two grants, which together involved more than $30 million in taxpayer money, didn’t undergo the peer review considered essential to agency awards. Both have been halted.

Further scrutiny has followed reports by the Houston Chronicle and other news organizations about the activities of a foundation established to supplement the salaries of top cancer agency officials.

The letter from Perry, Dewhurst and Straus said it is vital that CPRIT cooperate fully with current reviews, implement recommended changes, enact governance reforms and fill key vacant positions to ensure “all future grant requests are properly reviewed and acted upon – prior to future grants being awarded.”
(Read more of the story at Chron.com)

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